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Topic: The Daily Sheet January - April 2018 (Read 2579 times)

Gustavo Santaolalla's Music Travels From TV to Film to the Concert Stage

If you listen to Mexico’s most famous rock band, Café Tacuba, you likely recognize Gustavo Santaolalla’s name as the group’s producer. That’s just one of the dozens of Latin American bands he’s worked with. And if you saw the films “Babel” or “Brokeback Mountain,” you’ve heard the Oscar-winning soundtracks he composed. But you may not know his history as a musician and performer. He’s currently re-visiting that part of his career.

Santaolalla’s recording studio is in the hills of Echo Park. From the street, it looks like a normal 1950s ranch-style house. But just inside the entrance, there’s a wall with more than 50 covers of the albums he’s produced over the last few decades.

He walks in, singing a melody, and starts talking about the new album from his group, Bajofondo. The band plays contemporary music, re-inventing tango and other styles from Argentina, a region called Rio de la Plata. At first, he hesitates to tell me the name, but then…“I’m going to say it. The album is called 'Aura.' Aura, for us, means the same thing [as] here ... the energy field that surrounds living things. But also in Argentinian, aura it’s like slang to say ahora — now.”

A prominent lawyer who spent years fighting for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people set himself on fire Saturday. David S. Buckel's charred remains were found in a New York park, The New York Times reported. In a letter Buckel emailed to the publication and other media outlets earlier that day, he wrote, "Honorable purpose in life invites honorable purpose in death."

A former marriage project director for Lambda Legal, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT people, Buckel played a major role in a long, dark battle for recognition and equality.

In one of his most noted cases, he represented the mother of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who had notified a Nebraska sheriff that he had been raped. The sheriff informed Teena's assailants who killed him in the days that followed. "It should not be the case that reporting a crime makes matters worse for you," Buckel told The Daily Nebraskan in 2001. Eventually the sheriff was found liable for failing to protect Teena and his brutal murder was dramatized in a film called Boys Don't Cry starring Hillary Swank.

It’s no secret that homophobia in Hollywood has thrived for countless years. With so much violence and discrimination toward the gay community, it has been a huge breath of fresh air to see more homosexual representation in the film industry.

Queer-centric movies such as “Call Me By Your Name” and “Moonlight” were both able to nab Oscar nominations, with “Moonlight” even winning Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards. “Love Simon” is another coming-of-age movie centered around a queer main character that has had a huge impact on, not only the gay community but young people of all ages.

All of the movies mentioned were groundbreaking and definitely refreshing to see; however, they all focus on the romance between men. Oftentimes, it seems like the film industry only focuses on the G in LGBTQ+. Lesbians are overwhelmingly underrepresented in Hollywood.

Megan Marx has made no secret of her dream to find love with either a man or a woman on Bachelor in Paradise. But before flying over to Fiji and catching the eye of Jake Ellis, the Bachelor beauty tells NW she was actually lined up to become the first ever bisexual Bachelorette instead!

"I was meant to be the Bachelorette on Sophie [Monk]'s season as they wanted someone bisexual," Megan, 29, confesses. "But then Sophie asked if she could do the show and she was awesome and maybe I wasn't ready."

Although she lost the job to Soph, show bosses were so keen to make the franchise more diverse they flew the fan favourite back to Australia from Europe to try to convince her to sign up for the season. "It was in the early stages [of planning], but it would have been mainly guys and a few girls in the mansion," Megan tells us.

A federal court in Seattle in a ruling on Friday shut down President Trump’s “new” ban on transgender people serving in the military, which was issued by his administration last month.

Trump had claimed that the old ban was revoked and replaced with the new one, but U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman rejected this distinction, noting that the new documents “do not substantively rescind or revoke the ban, but instead threaten the very same violations that caused it and other courts to enjoin the ban in the first place.”Indeed, she found the claim that the new ban has exceptions wholly unconvincing:

The Court is not persuaded. The Implementation Plan prohibits transgender people — including those who have neither transitioned nor been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — from serving, unless they are “willing and able to adhere to all standards associated with their biological sex.”

Most of us are aware that LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – but for some, the term is gradually expanding to include other identities and orientations. The term LGBTQIAP2 stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual and Two Spirit. ﻿ In the 1980s, the acronym LGBT arose after activist groups campaigned for an inclusive description for non-straight and transgender people.

Over time, it has grown to recognize and include other sexual and gender orientations. For some people, though, the grouping together of lots of identities can be problematic.

Eleanor Formby, an academic at Sheffield Hallam University has criticized the use of the word “community” to describe LGBT people, arguing it is not suitable “for such a diverse group.” To understand exactly what LGBTQIAP2 means, let’s break it down.

RuPaul’s Drag Race has attracted millions of viewers in recent years on American network VH1, and in the UK on Netflix. At the heart of the show is the “supermodel of the world”, RuPaul, and his close friend and business partner Michelle Visage.

Visage – whose real name is Michelle Lynn Shupack- has been a judge on the reality show phenomenon for over seven years, which is currently airing its tenth season.

RuPaul’s Drag Race is an American reality show which pits drag contestants against one another to take on a series of challenges as they compete to be crowned ‘drag superstar.’

Away from the hit show, Michelle has also made a name for herself in the UK as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, and through music too as one-third of R&B trio Seduction.

Years ago, Brokies congregated in Spain to see the opera version of Brokeback Mountain. The image to the left features the stars of that production, Tom Randle and Daniel Okulitch. It was wondered if the opera would go on the road, and appear in the United States. It was later confirmed that NYC would see the opera, but the date was not determined.

The libretto for Brokeback Mountain was written by Annie Proulx herself, following a period of persuasion to take on a medium she had never attempted. The wisdom of such a collaboration was borne out by the results: in language distilled to that which can be sung onstage, the story’s details and themes remain intact, but the method of its telling required significant changes.

The London stage production of Brokeback Mountain is officially underway. The show, which was first announced in 2015, is based on the short story of the same name, which was later adapted into a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

We all know the story by now. In 1963, two young men, Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, are hired for the summer to look after sheep at a remote grazing range on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. Unexpectedly, alone in the wilderness, they form an intense emotional and physical bond that will change their lives forever. And over the next twenty years, as their separate lives play out through marriages, children and dead-end jobs, they long to be together, back on Brokeback Mountain, in a place where there are no secrets, only each other.

The show's official Twitter account posted an image of the script, revealing that production is underway.

Michelle Williams has always gone her own way. The Montana-born actress was legally emancipated from her parents at age 15 so that she could better pursue her acting career and pursue it she did. By age 18, she was starring in the popular TV drama “Dawson’s Creek,” in which she played Meg, a loose big-city teen who relocates to small-town life. In her time away from the TV series, she acted in many small independent films, none of which connected until 2003, when one finally did — Tom McCarthy‘s “The Station Agent,” in which she played a small-town librarian who becomes close to a socially-withdrawn dwarf (Peter Dinklage). That performance earned Williams her first SAG Awards nomination for Best Ensemble.

Williams is now back onscreen as Amy Schumer‘s cosmetic company boss in the new comedy “I Feel Pretty,” so now may be a great time to look back at her career. Take a tour above of her 12 greatest screen performances, ranked worst to best.

A gay employee in a South Jersey school district was harassed by his coworkers over his desire to be a foster parent with one telling him to "just get another pet" instead of a child and he should "find a woman" to have a child with, a lawsuit claims.

Joseph Longo III filed suit on Feb. 9 in Superior Court under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination alleging "harassment based upon sexual orientation, familial, status and discrimination and discrimination based upon gender stereotype" by the Salem City School District and employees there.

In his suit, Longo of Quinton, identified himself as a homosexual male and foster parent. He says he began working in the district in September 2000 and is listed on the district's website as a social worker affiliated with the Child Study Team.

Chiara Foglietta, a councillor in the Italian city of Turin, says authorities won’t recognise her baby, because he was conceived through artificial insemination.

Due to Italian laws, fertility treatments are only available to heterosexual couples. When she and her partner, Micaela Ghisleni, tried to register their son Niccolo Pietro after his birth on Friday last week, she was told to say she had had sex with a man. In a Facebook post, Ms Foglietta said she was told by authorities: ‘You must declare you had union (sexual relations) with a man to register your son. ‘There is no form to say you had artificial insemination.’

She said the legal black hole is due to a 2002 ministerial decree that does not foresee that a woman, rather than a heterosexual couple, would seek artificial insemination.

Film fans have long discussed the representation of sexuality and gender on screen. However a meme focusing on how light is increasingly used to portray bisexuals has gained traction on social media.

Many LGBT people have been sharing examples of TV programs, films and music videos to highlight the development of so-called "bisexual lighting" - characterized by the simultaneous use of neon pink and blue light on screen.

The under-representation of bisexuality on screen has been debated for a number of years, and some have seized on bisexual lighting as an empowering visual device. Reflecting this, the Pantone Color Institute named Ultra Violet as its color of the year for 2018, referencing the influence of "Prince, David Bowie, and Jimi Hendrix". But is it really a tool to represent bisexuality, or are people reading too much into neon-tinged stylization?

The Trump administration’s campaign to make life more difficult for transgender Americans entered a new phase this weekend. On Saturday, according to the New York Times, the administration announced that it would gut an anti-discrimination statute when it comes to health care access for transgender patients.

The rule, passed under the Obama administration in 2016, had prevented health care providers receiving federal financial assistance — including those receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments — from discriminating based on “gender identity.” A recent ruling out of Texas, however, found that segments of the rule were unlawful, opening the door for the Department of Health and Human Services to rewrite the rule.

The new rule, per the Times, has been submitted to the White House, which is currently “reviewing the proposed rule on ‘nondiscrimination in health programs’.” While the details of the new rule remain unclear, the Trump administration will likely allow health insurers to prevent coverage of treatments that help a person transition to another gender.

The documentary focuses on Arai's life, explores the question "How is love possible as a sexual minority?," and aims to fund screenings and distribution publicity for the film through the crowdfunding project. As of the posting of this article, the crowdfunding project has raised 1,736,500 yen (about US$16,000) of its 4 million yen (about US$37,000) goal with six days remaining.

Arai was raised as a woman but had times of becoming more masculine or feminine during teenage years due to hormone fluctuations. Arai married actor and voice actor IKKAN while living as a woman. At 30 years old, Arai underwent testing and discovered that they are intersex due to a chromosomal condition.

While visiting this year’s Tribeca Film Festival with her new film Egg, Christina Hendricks took a moment to reflect on the gay icon status she earned by playing the beloved Joan in Mad Men. Her co-stars Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black) and David Alan Basche also discuss their own gay icon standings, because, why not.

Years ago, Brokies congregated in Spain to see the opera version of Brokeback Mountain. The image to the left features the stars of that production, Tom Randle and Daniel Okulitch. It was wondered if the opera would go on the road, and appear in the United States. It was later confirmed that NYC would see the opera, but the date was not determined.

The libretto for Brokeback Mountain was written by Annie Proulx herself, following a period of persuasion to take on a medium she had never attempted. The wisdom of such a collaboration was borne out by the results: in language distilled to that which can be sung onstage, the story’s details and themes remain intact, but the method of its telling required significant changes.

The London stage production of Brokeback Mountain is officially underway. The show, which was first announced in 2015, is based on the short story of the same name, which was later adapted into a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

We all know the story by now. In 1963, two young men, Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, are hired for the summer to look after sheep at a remote grazing range on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. Unexpectedly, alone in the wilderness, they form an intense emotional and physical bond that will change their lives forever. And over the next twenty years, as their separate lives play out through marriages, children and dead-end jobs, they long to be together, back on Brokeback Mountain, in a place where there are no secrets, only each other.

The show's official Twitter account posted an image of the script, revealing that production is underway.